


Brienne: Princess of Tarth

by Roarie



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fluff, Inspired by Princess Diaries, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25592590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roarie/pseuds/Roarie
Summary: The outcast of Kings Landing High, Brienne, is thrown for a loop when, from out of the blue, she learns that she's of all people is a real-life princess! As the heir apparent to the crown of the small island of Tarth, Brienne begins a  journey towards finding comfort in herself as she learns how to become a princess.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	Brienne: Princess of Tarth

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! Around like 6 years ago I started a similar fanfiction. I had always wanted to come back to it but as years have passed my writing changed a lot and I wasn't sure what to do about it. I finally decided to just scrap everything I did before and start all over. This story's main plot is very inspired by the princess diaries movie but is very altered to fit in with my ideas and the characters. I hope you all enjoy it and thanks for reading.

She lay there looking up at the ceiling, gazing at all the glow in the dark star stickers that have been there since she was four with the help of her father. She had been afraid of the dark then, like all children who had a fear of being swallowed up by the pitch-black emptiness while being all alone. Was it the fear of not being able to see what was around you or knowing that no one could see you? She was not certain but alas, she was 16 now and content with being in the dark. The stars were simply stuck up there, one with the popcorn texture and would never come down even if she wanted them to. They were nice from time to time though and she liked the low green glow they gave off. It was peaceful to have the reassurance that the light would always be there to shine on her even on dark days. 

The alarm went off at that moment, trying to wake up a person who had been awake for at least an hour before. She had to give a speech today for class and the pit in her stomach of knowing that all eyes were on her for those 10 minutes had been with her since the day before. The pools of blue, green, and brown staring down at her while they snickered and sneered at her were enough to make her sick and she was sure in the moment that it was going to happen. Brienne was never good at public speaking; it involved a certain self-confidence that she never had. She was not like Margery who could waltz up to the stand, smile, and speak without a single stammer. She had envied those who had that prowess, it was a skill more useful than being able to brute force your problems away in this day and age. Perhaps in the past when dragons still roamed and knights existed she would have been the one to be envied and feared. This was not the case though and she lived her life being the outcast, though she had a feeling that would always be her curse in this lifetime or another. She was too “peculiar” as her father said; looks and mind as it had seemed. 

“Dear, you’re going to be late.” She could hear her father shout from downstairs.

“That was the point,” she mumbled to herself before getting out of bed. “I’ll be down in a second!” She yelled instead, knowing there was no point in trying to run away from the situation that was causing her the source of dread. 

Getting dressed she put on her Kings Landing uniform though she had insisted on wearing pants instead of the skirt. The private school wanted all girls to wear them as it was ladylike and the image they wanted to present to the public. What did the public care about highschoolers and what they wore? She wished she knew so that she could bring them into the Principal's office and tell them why they shouldn’t care what she wore. No one wanted to see her in this skirt anyways though and she supposed that's how she got away with it. That and when she walked down the halls everyone behind her thought she was a man anyways. The principle had walked past her many times since she had been here and never batted an eyelash at her because of this skill to blend in with the crowd even though she was still one of the tallest students in her class. She had just been happy that she could hide her unnaturally long legs and feel comfortable to bend over with no fear of flashing as the skirts never fit her correctly.

“I’m surprised no fever.” her father said without looking away from his newspaper as Brienne finally made her way to the kitchen. 

“Someone raised me to believe that flaking is wrong.” She responded as she grabbed her lunch from the fridge. 

“What a responsible parent,” He responded through a slight smile as he took a sip from his coffee. “You’ll do great, I’m sure. To face your fear is enough to prove that.” 

“That’s what I thought you would say.” She walked up to her father and kissed the top of his head before heading to the door. “Bye father.”

“Bye daughter, see you at the boxing ring after school.” The constant reply always made her feel little like she was that four-year-old girl who was scared of the dark again. The difference is that she felt like he could still protect her even though she knew that wasn’t true. 

Brienne walked to school. While she and her father were okay in terms of money she didn’t have enough for a car but that didn’t bother her. Walking gave her time to think or enjoy the silence before going to school. She particularly enjoyed walking under the shade that the trees would give her while a breeze would rush past her on hot days. 

“Wench, must you have such long legs. It’s impossible to catch up to you.” She heard behind her, making her turn to see Jaime walking at a brisk pace towards her, he would never run unless he had to. 

“Perhaps I didn’t want you to catch up.” she offered though she stood still till he was at her side. 

“And lose the chance to be in my presence? I think not.” He said with a smirk as they started to walk together in sync. 

To the general public the pair seemed odd and to be fair they seemed even odder to herself. She was taller than him and broader too while he was slim, almost her complete opposite. In movies, he would be paired with the most popular girl in school and be crowned prom king from his smile alone while Brienne would have been an extra that was titled “wallflower #3” in the credits; and yet that wasn’t the case in reality. 

At one point in time, Jaime Lannister was the most popular kid in school, sure. He had ruled the school so much so he made the last principle leave due to his pranks. The line of girls never seemed to end and that was due to him being captain of whatever sport was in season at the time until his right arm was injured. That’s what his version was, at least with his very pompous ways of storytelling when recalling his previous three years of high school. Something had happened though during his junior year that Brienne was unsure of other than it was linked to his arm. He was a year ahead of her and the academy was huge, to know every detail of the school’s social system would be difficult and even more so for someone who didn’t care about it. Brienne never pushed for more information though even if she would hear weird rumors about the man next to her. She would hear weird rumors about herself after all and none of them were true. 

How they still came to be in this weird friendship was beyond her. All she knew was that they looked at him the way they looked at her whenever they decided to give her glance and maybe that was enough for her to push aside all the bad things that were being said.

“One day, you really ought to let me drive us to school, you know.” He said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“I like walking. You can always drive yourself, you know.”

“Then I wouldn’t have anyone to bother and that is just a tragedy I will not be a part of.”

“Then walking is your small price to pay.”

He rolled his eyes but his smile didn’t go away. He seemed to love talking like this to her, the bickering, the teasing, the name-calling. She wondered if he just liked to get under people’s skin in general or if there was something else to it. 

Once they finally got to school it had felt like walking into a zoo. Teenagers, with an ungodly amount of energy so early in the morning, running around while others seemed to be passed out in front of their lockers. The constant chit-chat made it impossible to hear a single conversation as it seemed like at least 50 different people were talking all at once no matter where you walked.

_He kissed you?!_

_ Did you hear?  _

_ She’s such a slut. _

_ The paper is due today?! _

_ God, what a freak. _

Who said what, she didn’t know nor cared to but came to a halt when she spotted Renly in front of her laughing at something someone near him had said. A blush came over her as she watched him wrap an arm around Margery and for a second she wished she could be the smaller girl in front of her for many reasons but had to tell herself that wasn’t right to do to oneself. In a brief moment, the two beauties kissed and she could not help but imagine what it would feel like.

“Ouch! Wench, watch where you’re going.” Jaime had run into Brienne in her brief moment of being captivated. 

“I’m sorry..I...I” she tried to find a reason to explain why she froze so suddenly but fell short. She could feel people looking at her as Jaime got up off the ground and looked over her. He wasn’t surprised to see the brunette. “Ah, I should have known. Tell me was it the saliva exchange that got your panties in a twist or-”

“That’s enough!” she put an end to his sentence, it was easy to yell at Jaime as he knew how to bring it out of her. She had not wanted to hear more or worse have anyone else overhead what else he had to say. The idea of people knowing that she had a crush was more than she could bear. Being a teenager was always awkward when it came to one’s sexuality but even more so for her. It was normal for someone to want affection but when your very face seemed to scare everyone around you, you learn that love isn’t for you. To hear the cruel japes of those around you because you fell for someone out of your league was something she always tried to avoid. If it was up to her people wouldn’t get to know that she was like everyone else who had these desires and mixed emotions, instead, she would play the part of the ugly beast who did not love and she was okay with that. 

Jaime must have seen how tense she got and sighed before dragging her away from the scene that seemed to be building up in her own head. He didn’t say sorry but he never did that unless there was nothing else he could do. Instead, he walked her to class early before anyone was in the classroom and sat on the teacher’s desk without a care in the world. “Nervous I assume, after last speech’s debacle.” 

“...Yes.” she simply muttered out. Maybe that’s why she got so taken back by Renly today, it wasn’t like she didn’t see him like that every other day. Yes, she would say that it was her nerves that were getting to her and that’s why she was so taken by him that she froze. 

“Well understandable. You did barf into a tuba….which is impressive in its own right.” He said as he crossed his arms and tilted his head at the thought. 

“Reminding me isn’t helping.”

“Right, my bad.” and without a second hesitation, he grabbed her arm. Brienne could feel the heat of his hand against her cold skin and it sent a jolt through her that she couldn’t explain. 

“What in the God’s are you doing?” she tried to pull her arm back but he only tugged it closer to him again like her strength was nothing. 

“If you would give me a second you would see.” he simply responded as he took out a pen from his backpack with his free hand and uncapped it with his teeth spitting out the top for it to land on the floor. Brienne could feel the tip of the pen glide over her skin, it almost tickled her but Jaime went on drawing without hesitation. For a moment Brienne watched him intently. His eyes fixated on her arm, it was a focus she had never seen him give. It didn’t help that the morning sun glared through the blinds, leaving streaks of light to bounce off his golden hair and make his bright green eyes shine in an inhuman manner. 

“There, done,” he exclaimed as he looked down at his work. Brienne looked down to see a poorly drawn doodle of a lion’s head drawn on her forearm, her pale skin making the black pen ink stand out even more.

“Is this your way of telling me you want to become a tattoo artist?” Brienne awkwardly asked as she kept her gaze on the drawing, trying to understand the moment and also too afraid to look him in the eyes in this light. 

“When you’re around me you seem fine speaking your mind. My family always likes to remind those around us that we are lions. So here is your own lion. Think of me during your bloody speech and yell your way to an A, ” he told her as he finally let go of her arm. “or at the very least how your speech can’t be as bad as my drawing,” he joked a smile finally showing back on his lips. 

“...You are truly an idiot.” was all she could muster to say but smiled alongside him, he didn’t seem too hurt by her comment. The bell soon rang and he left her in the class. He had made a point that she was more relaxed around him...she wondered that if he was in this class would it be different? If so, why? She guessed it was because they were closer friends than she admitted to herself.

Class began soon enough for her to stop thinking about Jaime and instead on the speech. She was to debate against Cersei on school regulations on uniforms. Brienne didn’t really care if she was to wear a uniform or not as it didn’t matter what she wore as she would still look awkward in it but she was given the job of defending the uniforms. Unlike Cersei who had the public behind her in their distaste for plaid skirts and white polos even though she looked like every weird grown man’s fantasy of a schoolgirl. 

The debate went as you would expect Cersei started off strong, she was always clever with her tongue and was able to have everyone rally behind her by the end of her speech. By the time Brienne went up to speak, they started to boo like she was a politician at the wrong rally. She looked at the door thinking that if she ran now, she could make it to that bathroom this time and not the music room but she looked down at her arm to see the now slightly smeared lion. She took a deep break and began to speak. 

She looked at Cersei and could clearly see Jaime in her face; it was to be expected as they were twins. Though Brienne couldn't help but notice that Cersie’s features always seemed sharper than Jaimes. As she glanced at the lion on her arm and remembered what he told her she tried to imagine it was Jaime in the seats and not his twin. He had a point that when it came to him she had no fear to speak her mind, and so she did. 

By no means was she amazing at her debate with her weak and obvious points of uniforms being an equalizer and it being  _ tradition _ but it was five minutes in and the pit in her stomach hadn’t grown so bad that she needed to escape. 

It wasn’t until Cersei saw the lion on her arm that she felt like what she could only describe as her stomach falling. The twin glared at her before raising her hand, the intense look never going away. She didn’t even let the teacher give her permission to start speaking before letting her opinions be known “I’m sorry sir but should she be allowed to say these points even though she’s out of dress code. It seems like a contradiction.” She pointed out as she zeroed in at her pants. “She can’t even stand behind the points she’s making. Tradition? Is it a tradition for our school to let girls wear pants? She seems to be the only one wearing them. Why does she get to be different?...Unless we’re all right and she isn’t a girl at all.” 

The class started to agree with Cersei. The echoes of “Yeah! She’s right!” could be heard and it was putting a small smile on her lips. Brienne felt the panic all over again, the teacher for whatever reason didn’t step in to stop her classmates from overtaking her speech. She didn’t know what else to do but run out of the class again as she felt the feeling of her upset stomach. 

“Take cover! Wouldn’t want the ugly cow to throw up on you!” she could hear Cersei yell making her remember her place in this school was to be the beast and that is all she could ever be.


End file.
